KEYWORDS: Magnetoencephalography, Data modeling, Contrast transfer function, Data centers, Statistical analysis, Data analysis, Nerve, Magnetic resonance imaging, Brain mapping, Image segmentation
Cortical activation maps estimated from MEG data fall prey to variability across subjects, trials, runs and
potentially MEG centers. To combine MEG results across sites, we must demonstrate that inter-site variability
in activation maps is not considerably higher than other sources of variability. By demonstrating relatively
low inter-site variability with respect to inter-run variability, we establish a statistical foundation for sharing
MEG data across sites for more powerful group studies or clinical trials of pathology. In this work, we analyze
whether pooling MEG data across sites is more variable than aggregating MEG data across runs when estimating
significant cortical activity. We use data from left median nerve stimulation experiments on four subjects at each
of three sites on two runs occurring on consecutive days for each site. We estimate cortical current densities
via minimum-norm imaging. We then compare maps across machines and across runs using two metrics: the
Simpson coefficient, which admits equality if one map is equal in location to the other, and the Dice coefficient,
which admits equality if one map is equal in location and size to the other. We find that sharing MEG data
across sites does not noticeably affect group localization accuracy unless one set of data has abnormally low
signal power.
Shape analysis has become of increasing interest to the neuroimaging community due to its potential to precisely
locate morphological changes between healthy and pathological structures. This manuscript presents a
comprehensive set of tools for the computation of 3D structural statistical shape analysis. It has been applied
in several studies on brain morphometry, but can potentially be employed in other 3D shape problems. Its main
limitations is the necessity of spherical topology.
The input of the proposed shape analysis is a set of binary segmentation of a single brain structure, such
as the hippocampus or caudate. These segmentations are converted into a corresponding spherical harmonic
description (SPHARM), which is then sampled into a triangulated surfaces (SPHARM-PDM). After alignment,
differences between groups of surfaces are computed using the Hotelling T2 two sample metric. Statistical p-values,
both raw and corrected for multiple comparisons, result in significance maps. Additional visualization
of the group tests are provided via mean difference magnitude and vector maps, as well as maps of the group
covariance information.
The correction for multiple comparisons is performed via two separate methods that each have a distinct
view of the problem. The first one aims to control the family-wise error rate (FWER) or false-positives via the
extrema histogram of non-parametric permutations. The second method controls the false discovery rate and
results in a less conservative estimate of the false-negatives.
Prior versions of this shape analysis framework have been applied already to clinical studies on hippocampus
and lateral ventricle shape in adult schizophrenics. The novelty of this submission is the use of the Hotelling T2
two-sample group difference metric for the computation of a template free statistical shape analysis. Template
free group testing allowed this framework to become independent of any template choice, as well as it improved
the sensitivity of our method considerably. In addition to our existing correction methodology for the multiple
comparison problem using non-parametric permutation tests, we have extended the testing framework to include
False Discovery Rate (FDR). FDR provides a significance correction with higher sensitivity while allowing a
expected minimal amount of false-positives compared to our prior testing scheme.
Since event-related components in MEG (magnetoencephalography) studies are often buried in background brain activity and environmental and sensor noise, it is a standard technique for noise reduction to average over multiple stimulus-locked responses or “epochs”. However this also removes event-related changes in oscillatory activity that are not phase locked to the stimulus. To overcome this problem, we combine time-frequency analysis of individual epochs with corticallyconstrained imaging to produce dynamic images of brain activity on the cerebral cortex in multiple time-frequency bands. While the SNR in individual epochs is too low to see any but the strongest components, we average signal power across epochs to find event related components on the cerebral cortex in each frequency band. To determine which of these components are statistically significant within an individual subject, we threshold the cortical images to control for false positives. This involves testing thousands of hypotheses (one per surface element and time-frequency band) for significant experimental effects. To control the number of false positives over all tests, we must therefore apply multiplicity adjustments by controlling the familywise error rate, i.e. the probability of one or more false positive detections across the entire cortex. Applying this test to each frequency band produces a set of cortical images showing significant eventrelated activity in each band of interest. We demonstrate this method in applications to high density MEG studies of visual attention.
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